Vinings Home Christmas Tour 2014

Welcome! How have y’all been doing with the hustle and bustle of the Season? I love December, but it can be exhausting, can’t it ?  I’m so happy you had a little time to browse through this blogpost today, because I think you will enjoy seeing this beautiful Vinings area home in Atlanta!

A little background information, and other than that, I promise to keep it brief ( besides the tons of photos! 🙂 ) I met a new local friend, Stephanie Mellom, through Instagram. Stephanie is a Certified Home Stager and I am a Certified Interior Decorator, so we had the home decorating interest/profession in common. She got in touch with me and asked if I might be interested in helping her decorate a client’s house in Atlanta for Christmas ( and of course, I was ) so that’s how it came to be! You can visit Stephanie’s Facebook page here for more about her staging business. ( She is also soon to be an Atlanta realtor, if you have a need for that, as well ) 

The homeowners have only lived in this home for a year, and this is their family’s first Christmas in this home, so they wanted it to be special and beautiful. They have 2 sons in elementary school and are both working professionals. They have very busy lives and wanted their home decorated for the husband’s work Christmas party coming up soon, as well. They hired an interior designer to decorate the house, and she did a really beautiful job selecting fabrics, finishes, and accessories. Enhancing the existing beauty for Christmas was just icing on the cake for this lovely home!

Foyer

 Right when you walk through the front doors and into the foyer, there is a distressed black dresser console with a beautiful gold lamp, a large pottery plate, some books, and a Penley painting. The homeowners own quite a few Penley’s throughout the house. They are exquisite art pieces with Steve Penley’s signature “bold brush strokes, vivid colors and historical icon paintings.” ( according to the official online store website for Steve Penley’s artwork ) He is a local Georgia artist, and while working on this house, I became quite fond of his artwork! Simple silver and gold ball ornaments were added to the pottery bowl for impact, interest, and simple elegance during Christmas. 

Here’s a shot of the pretty music room, where we could’ve done a little more if we had had the time, but we kept it simple with a candelabra with some greenery and a gold ribbon. 

Living Room

Right past the foyer is the living room, which has large windows that lead to a patio with a balcony that overlooks a large saltwater pool. I especially liked the living room’s colors in this house and thought using the bold fuchsia as an accent at Christmas would be beautiful & different. We decided on golds, silvers, champagnes, and fuchsias for the tabletop tree in this space. I envisioned a faux gray tree skirt & thought that would add some softness and make a beautiful accent in this space, and Stephanie loved the idea of a crown for the tree topper. I wanted to keep it simple and elegant with a few pieces like these combined with velvet wired ribbon in fuchsia and fresh greenery mixed with silver and fuchsia ornaments on the mantle. 

Here is a shot of the room before Christmas:

Aren’t the grays/grieges,creamy whites, fuchsias and mustards just beautiful? I especially loved the ikat silk curtains. There is a coordinating fabric with gray as the main background color on the outside of the nailhead chairs in front of the mantle. This is repeated in the sofa throw pillows. Just lovely!

I added gift bags in whites, blacks, silvers, and golds in various patterns under the tree with a few sprigs of greenery and a few stray ball ornaments. We saw that the tabletop tree ( which was an artificial one ) was not really tall enough, so Stephanie brought a Ballard’s Designs tree urn she had bought last year. Don’t you love the finishing touch that adds to the area?

  

Stephanie bought this camel color faux throw, but our client wasn’t in love with it at first, so we styled it casually on the sofa back and arm, and guess what? She ended up liking it after all. It looks so good with the other fabrics and finishes, don’t you think?

 

A little bar area off from the living room got a few festive touches: ( another area that we could’ve done a bit more if we had had the time, but sometimes simple is best. The house already shines on its’ own 🙂 )

Another Penley above a console dresser in the living room. Love the dresser and the artwork! Simple greenery from the yard and an elegant Santa dressed in white enhanced, but did not compete with the other elements in the room.

I had alot to work with in the homeowner’s backyard! Magnolia, spruce, and pine~ perfect Christmas greenery!

Living Room Mantle

Keeping Room

The keeping room is right next to the living room and has a large connected kitchen and eating area. For this area, Stephanie wanted to combine rustic and elegant elements on this real 10 foot + tree. She used some dried hydrangeas and birch sticks from my yard, some beaded fruit, Ballard’s Designs leopard ribbon, and some other ornaments ranging from deep reds/bronzes to gold/oranges that she already had. Magnolia branches and glittery sprays were added, along with hydrangeas to serve as a tree topper. All of her touches beautifully complemented this space with the vaulted wood beam ceilings, stone fireplace, and rusty orange floral valance fabric.

Here is a before shot of the room:

More magnolia leaves, greenery, and kumquats were added to furniture accent pieces keeping things simple and classically elegant.

Greenery added to downstairs powder room near the kitchen area. Really love the deep red and cream floral patterned wallpaper.

Here is a look at the saltwater pool  looking off the back patio.  How about that outdoor fireplace in the downstairs loggia? What a great year round area for entertaining! ( Atlanta typically has mild to moderate Winters with last year’s Snowmageddon being the exception! ) I may have just put a Winter hex on Atlanta with that mild to moderate Winter statement….. :0

The upstairs patio that overlooks the pool area is right off from the keeping room and outside the living room window. We added greenery and a few ball ornaments to this outdoor dining table.

 

Stephanie and I had a fun time working together, and worked really well together, too. That isn’t always easy for creative types, as many of you know 🙂 I think this project just sort of “flowed” for us…Very cool when it happens that way. We hope to work on some future design projects together, as well.

I hope you all enjoyed the Christmas Tour!  Thank you for taking time to stop by. Hopefully, you can make some time for rest & relaxation despite the busyness of the Season. My home Christmas Tour will be coming up next time, so I’d love to have you come back for that, too!

‘Til next time, Friends,

xoxo